Academic Freedom and the Modern University: The Experience of the University of Chicago

by John W. Boyer

Academic Freedom and The Modern University. The Experience of the University of Chicago. Volume 10 of Occasional papers on higher education. University of Chicago Press.

100 pages, ebook

Published October 29, 2002

About the author

John W. Boyer is a Professor of History and the Dean of the College at the University of Chicago. His fields include "Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European Political and Cultural History, particularly in Germany and the Habsburg Empire, Religion and Politics in Modern European History and the History of the Universities". He is perhaps best known for his two-volume history of the Christian Social Party during the end of the 19th century in Austria. He co-edits, with Jan Goldstein, the Journal of Modern History.

Reviews

[Kelly Gregg · Rating 1 out of 5]

A deeply one-sided look at the role of freedom of speech and thinking at a university. Boyer glibly dismisses trigger warnings without defining them -- and based off of how he dismisses them, it seems that he actually does not understand what they are. He does not provide any push back to the university's stance that inaction is apolitical -- when keeping the status quo is a political act.

[Julia Schreder]

Freeeeee speech baby can’t wait to join fedsoc (HIGH irony)

This was a required book or else I would not have wasted my time

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The University of Chicago experience with academic freedom -- both our moments of equivocation and our proudest defenses of dissent -- provides important signposts as we consider speech that alienates or offends and confront challenges to free speech on college campuses today. Intellectual dissent has the power to clarify differences and elucidate competing assumptions. It enables each of us to recognize the strengths and weaknesses in our thinking." (6)